A common network, such as the Internet, may be used in some scenarios for connections between a VMS and networked cameras and/or clients. Due to the proprietary or non-standard nature of some example VMS implementations, a given client may not be able to access data from different VMSs; just the particular VMS or VMS's the client is designed to work with. Likewise, backup or archiving of data from a VMS is typically done using proprietary or vendor-specific methods that often vary from one VMS to the next, making management of data backup difficult and retrieval of archived data problematic if the VMS that stored it is unavailable.
Data sources, such as cameras, that supply data to a first VMS may not be compatible with a second VMS, resulting in expensive duplication of data sources. VMSs may have diverse data retention requirements (from none to hours, days, or permanently in some cases) and varying regulatory compliance requirements (e.g. HIPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, chain of custody, etc.). In addition, if a VMS becomes or is unavailable, the data it has stored can become inaccessible, even if the data is stored in a location that remains or is available and is in a standard format, because the location of the data is known only to the VMS that stored it.
Solving these and other related problems can result in reduced costs, improved reliability, better retrieval speed, simpler data backup, and additional capabilities.